This Made My Day!

My friend sent me this video, and it made my day! What a way to use your talents and have fun doing it! I love how the girl on the intercom gets such a kick out of it, too. Enjoy!

Seeking it out!

I'm not gonna lie--circumstances here are stressing me out much more than they are bringing me happiness. Hospital drama, work craziness, being away from family, and just living in Japan in winter in general are all adding up and making me a lot more stressed than I usually am.

On top of that, everything here is so expensive! I get the urge to sew or crochet but can't find any materials that are cheap or suitable for what I want to do. Good thing I am working on an afghan that will be keeping my hands busy for years or I would have serious anxiety issues.

I am not depressed but have realized that life here is full of discomfort, which is a good thing to experience once in a while but over a year, it takes its toll. So, I am seeking out happiness! I started with writing a list of 20 things that made me happy.
Then I read it. Then I realized that I had zero access to most of those things (sweet potatoes, magazines, Mexican food, my cats). Luckily, I do have my fun children and loving husband...and a few other things that bring me great joy that I need to remember, such as:

1.) I can finally get away with washing my hair 1-2 times a week! This may seem gross or not like an accomplishment at all, but I have been working on being able to do this for years! I have tried the no-shampoo method and natural cleansers, but my hair would always get greasy after 2 days. Maybe it is the Japanese shampoo I am using (Lux Super Shine) but my hair very rarely gets greasy like it did in the States. Hooray!

2.) This Being Elmo trailer makes me so happy! Kevin Clash is awesome, and the documentary looks so inspiring!


3.) Zombie Dice!

Fox gave me this game for Christmas (along with perfume called Samurai Woman..rrawr!), and I love it. It is Yahtzee-like and so simple that even my kids can play it. Cash is learning to write numbers and loves to keep score. Oh yes, my kids know all about zombies and find them funny. They know the book "Scooby Doo on Zombie Island" by heart.

4.) Funny pictures on Pinterest. I follow some really funny boards, so Fox and I usually get a really good laugh before we go to bed. Love this one:


So there are some things. What I really need is new music, which makes life so much better. I can not find any good music! Anyone? I can not handle folksy, melancholy music or Adele or anything super sappy at this point in my life. I need good, uptempo, clean, happy music. Or any good acoustic-guitar stuff. Any recommendations?

Hiccup the Hero Hats!

We are big fans of How to Train Your Dragon around here, so when I saw this crochet pattern from one of my favorite etsy shops, I knew what my next baby project would be: Little Viking Hats!

First, I made the newborn size, as modeled by Pooh:



And then a matching big brother hat. I don't know why Cash looks so sad in this picture--I think he wanted to be the one to take the pictures:


I can't wait to see the hat on a newborn! If you crochet, Mamachee is an awesome pattern writer. Zero problems with a crochet pattern for possibly the first time ever!

Pink!

I am not a huge lover of pink, unlike my sister Megan. I prefer to put a baby girl in purple :) BUT...I do like pink a lot.

Here are some fun pink things that have made me smile this week:

Strawberry Shake Milky Ways, imported from Russia to our local Toys 'R Us. Fox's favorite candy bar is Milky Way, so he was really excited about these!



Strawberry and Milk Flavor Pepsi. This stuff tastes like melted blue raspberry icee, so it is delicious! Don't worry--I only had a sip and gave the rest to Fox for his late night drive to church tonight. And no, I am not a Pepsi fan--I am just a sucker for limited edition flavors of any product!

And the cutest pink thing ever:


Cosette came out of her room after naptime cuddling her pink Snoopy in her new pink winter pajamas. If I let her choose her clothes, she usually goes for white, black, or orange--but she actually chose something pink this time! She has had a fever today, so it was really good to see her happy after naptime.

Now if only I could find some maternity clothes here that aren't in gray, black, or brown. Apparently, it's all about hiding that bump here!

Old to New

Last week, the blog Elsie Marley did her bi-annual Kids' Clothing Week Challenge, which I always try to play along with--because sewing clothes for little people is fun!
Unfortunately, I didn't really have any new fabric to play along with. Turns out that Japanese fabric is expensive in both America and Japan. Sad. But you know what's not expensive? Cutting up your old stuff!

Here's a shirt I made for Cosette using an old hoodie that I no longer wore:


I used the same pattern as here but left off the ruffles and put on a bow instead, for a French twist. She looks like she should be holding a baguette, right?



And then I cut up an old maroon shirt of mine to make this envelope tee for the baby on the way:


The t-shirt pattern is from Growing Up Sew Liberated which is an amazing book. I originally bought it for the Waldorf Doll pattern, as I left mine somewhere in the U.S. I want to make everything in this book, though! We'll see about the sizing when the little one comes.
The pants (from this free pattern) are from flannel that I found after digging around for an hour in a big fabric warehouse out in the country here. I could only find 2 types of flannel, and I bought a meter of both...and I think both are ugly, but oh well. The saleswoman looked at me like I'm crazy to buy such strange fabric.

The funny thing about Japan is this--the good crops are really lacking here, meaning cotton, wheat, etc. So, cotton flannel and good quality cotton clothes are hard to find, which means baby clothes are funky and not super soft. You can buy polyester fleece, but that is about it. So, if you go to the store to buy a pair of sweats, usually the inside is unfinished--meaning no cozy fuzzies on the inside of the sweats! It's really weird. Japanese kids are cuties, but Japanese kids' clothes are a whole different story...

Anyways, now I am excited to cut up some more clothes!

P.S. Remember my new sewing machine? We are not friends when it comes to knit fabric, even when I am using a needle specifically for knit fabric. I am pretty much done with knit fabric. Grrrrr...
Luckily, Seamstress Tiger feels my pain!

Watch, Read, Listen--Kids Edition

Life is a lot easier for me when my kids are finding joy in things around them, so here are some things they (and I) have been enjoying lately!

Watch:

WeetWoo is a very cool app that has a library of kid-appropriate YouTube videos. We have YouTube blocked on our iPad, due to too many disturbing things on there, so this is a better option. Plus, it's sorted into different categories--animals, educational, kids' shows, etc. Cash loves old school Chip 'N Dale and Coco likes the strange Charlie and Lola.



Cookie Doodle isn't a video, but the kids sit still, so I count it as "watching". It is probably the most used app on our iPad--the kids can choose a cookie recipe (the actual recipe is listed, but I haven't tried any yet) and then virtually stir the dough, crack the egg, etc. Then roll, cut, bake,decorate, and eat the cookie. It is a really, really fun app, and everyone who tries it absolutely loves it. Very cute!

Read:




One of my greatest joys is collecting books I read as a child--I'm a little obsessed...and missing Paperback Swap, where I've gotten a ton of them. I think all of my siblings and I have a similar list of books we loved as children--we were read to and read a lot. The Funny Little Woman is one of my all-time favorite children's books, and I'm happy to say that my kids are obsessed with it as well. I got it about a year ago, and it has been the steady favorite. Cash has it memorized!
It's about a woman in Japan whose rice dumpling rolls under the earth. She goes searching for it and gets captured by the wicked oni! The book has taken on a whole new meaning now that we live in Japan and eat rice dumplings and see oni statues.

Listen:

This is another childhood favorite that my children now love! I listened to Brite Music a lot as a child and remember a lot of the songs. The "Happiness" book is my favorite, and I found myself singing the "Whiny Child" song to my kids whenever they whine, which would make them laugh. So, I paid the money and got the whole CD/audiobook downloaded. My kids love it! They love all the songs and love to listen to the story. I wish you can buy the book to follow a long, but oh well. If you've never heard Brite Music, try and sample it. Shiny Brite is another one of my favorites that I sing to the kids a lot (especially the "Junk Food Junkie" song--they get a kick out of that!)
And randomly, Coco is obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Mean". She likes any songs that mention weapons and knives, which is in the first line. Oy. :)

What have your kids been loving lately?

Randomness I Love--Japan

I've lived in Japan for 9 months so far, this time around. And as always, I continue to get a kick out of this place. Here are some random things that make me smile:

Characters:

All of my students here have been very interested in what my favorite "character" is--everyone, young and old, loves a particular character, it seems. Hello Kitty is the most popular internationally. Anpanman is the favorite of little kids (check out this crazy link comparing Anpanman to Jesus!). A cartoon capybara is really popular this year. My favorite since childhood is the old school Little Twin Stars:



You can always tell someone's favorite character, because they will have a random charm or stuffed animal attached to their bag, if their bag is not printed all over with the character. I love how Japan is so into cuteness!

Health Care:

Everyone in Japan is covered under the government socialized health insurance. It does have its downside (the large annual tax!) but for the most part, it is awesome. Last week, Fox walked into a chiropractor's office for some shoulder pain he was having. He was seen immediately, treated, and then given a half hour massage--and walked out, paying about $8.

Maternity care is awesome, too, especially from my natural-minded standpoint. The idea here is that there really is no reason for epidurals or not breastfeeding. My favorite handout in my maternity care packet is one that says, "After 24 weeks of pregnancy, please sit topless in the sun every day for 15 minutes to prepare your breasts for breastfeeding." Um, sure!


Fortune Tellers
Okay, I don't know about contemporary fortune tellers in Japan, but it used to be really common here to go to one who would help you name your children. My favorite story of this is: My friend and her husband went to a fortune teller when they were having their first child, about forty years ago. The fortune teller spent a long time thinking and finally came up with the perfect name for their first child: Koichi (translation--Ko means child, Ichi means one/first). Awesome.

And finally:
The word "toes" in Japanese is "ashi-no-yubi", which literally translates into "foot fingers". So awesome.